The Warszawski Hustle
by Brunette
Summary: It wasn't too often Kitty had good ideas. Well. It wasn't too often she had ideas, period. [rated for crass humor.]


_**Author's Note.** I've kind of been dying to do another Kitty story forever. This is only a one-shot, but hopefully something inspiring will occur, and I'll find a way to use her again. _

**_This story is slightly AU-ish. I thought it would be more fun with canon characters, even though it kind of doesn't make sense for them all to be in this situation (especially in light of _A Good Time_, where Kitty first appears). Hopefully it doesn't detract from the story for you. Generally, I think the more you can incorporate the original characters, the better._**

_**Disclaimer:** The characters of _The Mummy_ and _The Mummy Returns_ are the property of Universal Studios. Kitty Warszawski is a character of my own invention, first introduced in _A Good Time_. Have you read _A Good Time?_ You should totally read_ A Good Time.

* * *

**The Warszawski Hustle**

"Hey, I got an idea."

That's how it started. She was sitting there painting her toenails on the edge of his bed, likely smearing red polish over the only blanket he owned that didn't have holes in it. He assumed, at the time, that she wasn't even listening to them, what with the way her brow was so furrowed over the task at hand. She wasn't very good at juggling too many things at once. So the first time she said it, he ignored her.

"I said I got an idea. It's a good one. Just listen."

He glanced over at her impatiently and sneered, because it wasn't too often Kitty had good ideas. Well. It wasn't too often she had _ideas_, period.

"Kitty, I don't care," he grumbled in his whiny accent before she could start pouring into her plan. She pouted at him, and he mocked a pout back at her. "I have just lost _all_ of the rent money. All of it."

"I know that, baby," she said, putting her nail polish aside and sitting up animatedly, not even noticing when the bottle tipped over. "See I just figgered a way we can win it back."

Beni scoffed; Izzy over there with his stumpy half of a cigar was a tad more polite. "That's awful sweet 'a you, darling, but I'm afraid your gent's in a bit of a spot. Puts 'im in a sour mood, see."

Kitty giggled, rolling her eyes good-humoredly. "Just listen!"

She tried to start in on her plan again, but Beni interrupted her with a stream of curses and pointed at his bed. "That is the only blanket that is worth a damn!"

She frowned at the puddle of nail polish pooling into the fibers of the worn wool blanket and flicked her wrist dismissively. Her wide, dark eyes danced with excitement.

"Don't worry about that now! Just listen. 'Kay? For just, like...a minute. Just give me a minute here. I got somethin'."

Beni raised his eyebrows skeptically, but she ignored him with her characteristic exuberance, and spilled her entire plan almost faster than her lips could form the words. He crossed his arms over his chest and listened, his expression curdling by the second.

"That is a hustle, Kitty. Everyone knows a hustle."

Her brow knitted up in confusion. "How is it you know the name of a thing like that, but I can't say 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' without you lookin' at me funny?"

He frowned darkly. "That is a stupid saying that does not make any sense."

She sat up, impatient and distracted. "It does so - "

"It doesn't."

"You just don't get it."

"Oh," he laughed cruelly. "And _you_ will explain it to me?"

_"I'll_ explain it to you," Izzy cut in. "Later. Right now, I think we might have a genuine plot on our hands."

Kitty perked up, turning a dazzling grin his way. "You really think so?"

He nodded, offering her his smarmy smile. Beni scoffed.

"It is a_ hustle,"_ he said again. "People are always looking out for hustles at the poker tables."

Izzy met his gaze and shook his head emphatically. "Not like this, they don't."

Beni raised his incredulous eyebrows. "It_ looks_ like a hustle from the start. That is the problem. It doesn't matter if it does not go like a regular hustle. It looks like one, and they will boot her out before she even sits down."

A greasy little grin found its way into Izzy's mouth, and he stared at Beni in amusement. He chuckled at his own private joke for a moment, glancing every now and then at Kitty, whom Beni was sure was only smiling because she didn't know what else to do - _not_ because she was in on it.

"Perhaps you've been shagging her so long it's slipped your mind, but most any gent'll let an arse like hers sit at the table with 'im."

Kitty giggled, and blew him a kiss. He winked back, but quickly turned a smug gaze back to their companion. Beni was too focused to really notice the self-satisfied way the other two were eyeing him, though. His eyes narrowed at the nail polish stain, and he frowned to himself in thought. As he mulled over Kitty's plan and Izzy's words in his head, his fingers wandered absentmindedly for a cigarette from his pocket. He lit up, and breathed in a certain kind of clarity with the first drag. Kitty was an idiot, but her plan was surprisingly flawless.

Also, rent was due on Friday.

He sighed out a puff of smoke and nodded his head. "Alright. We will try it."

That's how it started. Kitty let out a squeal and started rifling through the crumpled mess of clothes she had strewn about the floor until she found a particularly slinky little tasseled number. Without a word, she hurried out of their room, presumably down to the hall bathroom to put it on. Beni glanced across the room and scoffed at the amused expression on Izzy's face.

"It is like you've never seen a dumb blonde before."

Izzy chuckled and puffed on his cigar.

She returned faster than Beni had ever known her to get dressed, a smile beaming from her face and her hands perched nonchalantly on her hips. He glanced up at her, and despite the fact that he saw her every day, his throat suddenly felt very dry, and his palms started to sweat, and he wanted her. It was a devilish little slip of a dress that barely qualified as proper clothing, with a skirt several inches above her knees and an open back. It was tight and black but the beaded tassels gave it a fashionably loose appearance. She grinned at them and struck a pose for a split second before a thought struck her.

"Oh! And there's a headband!"

She dove to her piles of clothes and searched wildly until she found a sparkling black headband accented with a faux black-and-silver peacock feather. She tugged it over her peroxide curls and hurried back to the center of the room so they could see.

"Well?" she asked, batting her eyelashes. "Am I ravishin' or am I ravishin'?"

Beni hid a nervous swallow in a scoff. "You look like a prostitute."

She huffed. "I do not! This thing cost two hundred dollars!"

"Then you look like an expensive prostitute."

Her eyes narrowed at him for a brief moment before turning quickly to Izzy. "What about you, honey? Would you...what's that British-y word you was usin'? Shag! Would you shag me in this dress?"

Izzy chuckled. "Darling, I'd shag you in that or anything, but I'druther shag you in nothin' a'tall."

Kitty erupted in a fit of giggles, and she crossed the room to plant a kiss on his lips. Beni rolled his eyes. She glanced over at him with a coy little smirk.

"See? I look ravishin'. Izzy here'd have me on the bed in a minute flat if you wasn't here."

Beni gave her a sarcastic smile, but his eyes were grim. "Do you want me to leave for a moment, then?"

Kitty huffed a little sigh and crossed over to give him a swat. "Oh, you hush. I was just sayin'. You could pay a gal a compliment once in a while."

His smile sank into a dirty smirk. "Oh, I've got a _compliment_ for you. A big one."

Kitty gave him a chiding expression, but she was giggling too much to make it effective. She let him pull her onto his lap, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. His hands started to wander, and he was seriously thinking about telling Izzy to get the hell out of his apartment, but then -

"Alright, alright, you two. She's made 'er point. Are we gonna do this or not?"

Beni's brow furrowed in confusion, and he blinked himself back to a reality where rent was due and Kitty was an obnoxious pain in his ass.

"What is this 'we'? What's in it for you?"

Izzy shrugged. "Whole pot at a place like the Brass Camel 'll cover your rent and then some. I'd think you'd be willin' to go splitsies with me if it pushes the odds to one of us winnin'."

Kitty grinned. "I like the sound 'a that. Don't you, baby?"

Beni let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't want to split anything with him."

"Ah," she said, giving him a little shove and climbing off of his lap. "Quit bein' such a miser. Izzy wants ta help us, and we could use the partner."

Beni rolled his eyes and grumbled a few Hungarian curses, but decided not to fight with them. The odds _were_ better if Izzy was there; the plan might have been a sure thing, but there was less of a risk if one of them just won the pot instead. And he could probably talk Izzy down to a pretty slim percentage of the pot...

"Fine," he muttered. "Put your shoes on."

Kitty let out a gleeful little squeal and got down on the floor, pulling shoe after shoe out from under the bed until she at last found two matching heels that were dangerously high. Beni groaned.

"Don't wear those."

She didn't even glance up as she tugged them onto her feet. "I'm wearin' 'em."

"I hate it when you are taller than me," he whined.

Kitty scoffed, steadying herself on the bed as she pulled herself to her feet. "But my legs look longer in 'em."

Beni rolled his eyes. "As short as that dress is, they don't need to look any longer."

She sniffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Baby, a girl's legs can _always_ look longer if she can make 'em."

Izzy gulped a swallow and raised his eyebrows. "And how."

Kitty beamed, flashing a smile at Izzy. "See? It's settled. Let's get goin'."

"Clearly I am going to have to separate you two idiots if I ever want to win an argument again," Beni muttered, following behind as Kitty took the crook of Izzy's arm and the two of them strolled out of the apartment. Beni sighed, digging his keys out of his pocket and locking the door before scurrying after them, down the hall and into the stairwell, and out into the night.

It was after ten o'clock, but their neighborhood was still alive thanks to the row of bars only a block over, all crowded together around one sorry casino known as the Brass Camel. A tacky wooden single-humped beast was perched on its roof, painted an orange-ish brown in a half-assed attempt to live up to the establishment's name.

"We cannot look like we are together," Beni reminded as Izzy opened the door for Kitty. She turned and gave him an obvious look.

"I know that, silly."

Izzy chuckled, watching her saunter in ahead of them for a beat. He turned and gave Beni a nudge.

"Not to worry, chap. No one can believe she's with you even when she's with you."

Beni rolled his eyes.

Izzy was right, but he didn't really care. What Kitty had in looks, she lacked in virtually all other areas. She was needy and annoying and insufferably dim, and he was tired of her. If he could figure out how to get rid of her, he would have a long time ago. The only reason she hung around him, anyway, was because she thought he looked like her stupid ex-boyfriend, a sleek and admittedly more handsome Frenchman who had abandoned her out here in the first place.

Beni pushed past Izzy and strolled into the casino as nonchalantly as he could. He got himself some chips on credit, and then turned to look about the bustling, smoky room. He scanned the poker tables thoughtfully until he caught a glimpse of a sparkling feather headband. He heard a familiar eruption of giggles, and jerked his head in the direction of a table that was already starting to look a little too crowded. He groaned; didn't Kitty know well enough not to go and sit at a table that already had four players? They may not even want him, now that they had five...

He took a breath and plastered on his most gracious smile, meandering over to Kitty's table with his hands in his pockets.

"Do you mind if I join you gentlemen?"

"Table's full," a dark-headed man with an unmistakable American accent told him, not even looking up.

Beni's mouth flinched nervously. "But there is only five - "

"Ah, hell, Daniels. Just let 'im sit."

Daniels glanced across the table at his friend and raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. He sniffed and nodded at an empty seat between him and a linen-suited charmer whispering with Kitty in his English accent. Beni pretended to ignore them and reached into his pocket for another cigarette. He was just lighting it, and Daniels was just starting to deal, when -

"Evenin', gents! Room for one more?"

Daniels' eyes shot up testily. "We already got six."

Izzy shrugged, waving off his words and dropping into the seat next to Kitty. "So what's seven?"

Daniels laid the cards flat on the felt, and his eyes flashed across table. "Did I say you could sit down, boy?"

Izzy raised his eyebrows. "You haven't even started to deal yet - "

"Well I ain't dealin' nothin' to you."

"Oh, come on, gent," Izzy said, scooting his chips out in front of him. "I got good money, same as you, and I make for dreadful pleasant comp'ny, if I do say so meself - "

"I don't play cards with coons," Daniels told him pointedly.

Izzy stared back at him, his lips shifting with a hidden emotion for a moment before they burst into a strained grin. "Well, you're in luck, chap, 'cause I'm a bloody Englishman."

"Right-o!" Kitty's companion piped up all of the sudden. His face fell sheepishly when Daniels gave him a hard glare.

Beni let out a whining sigh. "Oh, just let him play..."

" 'Scuse me?" Daniels demanded. "I got half a mind not to play with squirrelly little foreigners, neither."

"Dave," his spectacled friend said calmly. "You're holdin' up the game."

"Bernard's right," his other friend piped in around a wad of chewing tobacco. "We came to play cards. Let's play cards."

Daniels raised his eyebrows incredulously. "You mean to tell me, Gabe Henderson, it don't bother you a bit playin' cards with a coon?"

"The only person who's bothered by it is you, my good son," the Englishman said.

Daniels met his gaze. "That right?" He tilted his head to the side, sizing him up. "What'd you say your name was?"

"Jonathan."

Daniels leaned back in his seat. "Well, Jonathan, let me tell _you_ somethin'. When I ask my friends here a question, I don't give a rat's ass what your opinion is."

"Dave," the one called Bernard said again in his placid way. "Everyone just wants to play cards. Don't make a big thing out of it."

Daniels stared back at his friend for a moment, and then let out a sigh. He grumbled to himself as he picked up his cards, but he dealt them out to everyone, including Izzy.

"Go home and register Democrat," he muttered. "Got a coon, a bohunk, a broad and a faggot Englishman at the poker table. I'm goddamn progressive..."

"Hey, be a doll and get my light, won'tcha Jon?" Kitty piped up, her voice shaking a little from nerves. She fixed a cigarette into her holder and held it between her teeth while Jonathan happily fished out a lighter.

"Ah! 'Nother Yank at the table, I see," Izzy said brightly, giving her a wink.

Daniels let out a growling groan. "I already had to tell that dumb Brit enough times, and I ain't sayin' it again. Texans _ain't_ Yankees."

Izzy's brow wrinkled up in confusion. He turned back to Kitty curiously. "Are you a Texan then, darling?"

"Nope," she giggled. "I'm a Brooklyn girl through and through!"

"So _she's_ a Yankee," Henderson said.

Jonathan frowned at his cards. "So at what point does one stop being a Yank, then?"

Henderson looked at his friends thoughtfully for a moment and shrugged. "Mason-Dixon line, I guess?"

Bernard and Daniels nodded in approval. Jonathan let out a sigh, staring down his cards carefully. "Little did I know," he sighed. "I thought the lot of you were Yanks."

"Yeah, well," Daniels said, "we ain't." He took a breath and looked around the table impatiently. "Ah'right, folks. The game is hold'em. Burns, it's your bet."

"I'll - "

"Hold up a moment," Izzy said, his brow furrowed curiously at the spectacled man. "Did I hear that right? Your name's Bernard Burns?"

He shrugged and nodded his head.

"Who on earth named _you?"_

Bernard cleared his throat and started to tell him something about a family tradition, but Kitty was louder:

"Ahh, I think it's kinda cute. Bernie Burns. Did folks ever call ya that? Bernie Burns?"

"Who cares?" Daniels cut in testily. "Everyone wants to play cards so goddamn bad, let's play cards already. Burns, what's your bet?"

"Five dollars," Burns said, pushing a few chips to the center of the table.

Beni balked. "Five dollars? What is the minimum?"

Daniels met his eyes evenly. "It's fifteen at this table, bohunk. Still so sure you wanna play here?"

Beni grumbled to himself in Hungarian and pushed a few chips into the center of the table.

"And you gotta speak English if you're gonna play here, too."

Beni glared up at him petulantly. "I _am_ speaking English."

"What's that accent, anyways?" Daniels asked, dealing around the table. "You a Commie or somethin'?"

"A what?"

"A Communist."

Beni stared back at him, perplexed. "I'm Hungarian."

"Really?" Daniels said. "Where's that at?"

Beni's brow furrowed up incredulously. "Where is _Hungary?"_

"Yeah," Daniels retorted, bristling. "Don't you know?"

"I believe it's right there next to Austria, my good son," Jonathan said, glancing up from his cards. "I'll hold."

Beni let out a sarcastic sigh. "You are a genius."

"Oh, he don't even have to be a genius," Kitty said, nudging Jonathan with her elbow. "With that fancy accent, everythin' he says sounds so smart. He could tell me the sky's made 'a peach sorbet and I'd believe it!"

Jonathan chuckled, and Beni watched him slide a nonchalant hand on her thigh. "Well, darling, I don't know about all that, but I bet you_ taste_ like peach sorbet."

Kitty giggled and leaned against his shoulder. "Baby, you play them cards right and you can find out."

His hand didn't leave her leg as he turned his attention back to his cards. The corner of Beni's mouth flinched when Jonathan's fingertips slipped just under the hem of her dress, but he quickly cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the card game.

The next several hands dragged on like hours. Beni burned through cigarettes nervously, keeping a dismal eye on his modest stack of chips. He really wasn't a good card player. He didn't like gambling. He didn't like risks. He had to keep reminding himself this was a sure thing - that whatever he lost was coming right back at him. But God, was he anxious. That American Daniels didn't like him, and Beni learned quickly that the smartest thing he could do was keep his mouth shut. He was desperate for the card game to be over, but the pot kept growing and everyone was invested now.

Seven fucking players. Leave it to Kitty.

The game wore on. Henderson's spittoon was brimming and Burns took his glasses off and wiped them down after every hand.

"Shit, Burns, can't be any dirtier than they was a second ago."

Izzy was drinking too much, blinking hard and moving the cards closer to his face to get a sure look at them. And Jonathan's hand was all the way up Kitty's skirt. Beni could hear her, biting back little noises in her throat, and his fingers tensed on the cards in his hand. He pursed his lips together and ignored her.

"Whew!" she sighed all the sudden, laying her cards down and stretching her arms over her head. "Fellas, it ain't even funny how far in the hole I am!"

"You ain't the only one," Daniels chuckled darkly, eyeing Jonathan. Beni shifted in his seat and took another little drag off of his cigarette. He tried not to scoff when Jonathan jerked his hand out of Kitty's lap and floundered to look casual. Kitty pretended to be oblivious and shrugged.

"I got nothin' else to put in there," she said thoughtfully. She looked around the table with her wide, dark eyes, and damned if she really didn't look like the thought was occurring to her for the first time that night: "Well, not _quite_ nothin'."

Izzy exaggerated a thoughtful frown. "What're you sayin' there, love?"

Kitty giggled, and suddenly her feet were kicked up on the table.

She was right. Her legs _did_ look longer in those heels.

"I'm sayin'," she said with a serious and alluring kind of glint in her eye, "I'm goin' all in, fellas."

Burns swallowed nervously, and took off his glasses to wipe them down again. "A-all in?"

"Like gin, baby."

He let out a low whistle, shaking his head. "Jeeze, I don't know about that...Seems kinda...kinda like...um..."

Kitty gave him a little pout, eyeing the stacks of chips in front of him thoughtfully. "Ain't you like, almost winnin' though, Bernie Burns?"

Bernard glanced at his chips as if noticing them there for the first time. He reached a finger under his bowtie and tugged at it. "Well-well I think Dave's got the lead. Actually."

She frowned between their chips and shrugged. "Looks awful close to me..." Her eyes wandered over to Beni, sitting there with his two pathetic little chips in front of him. She gave him a coy wink. " 'Course somebody could always come back from behind..."

He fought the urge to glare at her.

It wasn't that he didn't already know Kitty was a slut. He knew that. He'd known that the day he met her. And he knew she went home with plenty of other men, too. Most nights he hoped she'd fall in love and just _stay_ with some new idiot, because he was sick of her living with him. But, well..._shit,_ Kitty.

Holy shit, already.

She was wearing that dress and had her legs on the table and she was saying those cheap, tantalizing things, and goddamn Jonathan had just spent _the entire game with his free hand up her skirt_...and everybody wanted her. Everyone at the table wanted her. _She_ looked like the sure thing, from where they were sitting. And the fact that every other man there wanted her, made Beni want her. More than he'd ever wanted her or any woman in his life. She was his and they could all go to hell.

"No one's comin' up from behind," Daniels told her gruffly. "Short 'a bad luck, you comin' home with me, honey."

Kitty giggled and gave him a wink. "Baby, if this was craps, I'd give your dice a blow."

"Jesus," Henderson murmured. "Are all New York girls like you?"

"That depends on how much you are paying them," Beni said under his breath.

"Hey!" Kitty said, perking up in her seat. Her eyes were darker, and her expression was fiercer than he'd ever seen it before. Her voice had lost a bit of its bubble, and sounded shrewdly Brooklyn. "I ain't a whore. Not for nobody."

Beni scoffed, raising his eyebrows incredulously.

"Not for nobody," she said again. "I don't know how broads are in that nothin' country you come from, but in America, we got rights. And we're usin' 'em, too. Goin' home with somebody don't make me no whore."

He met her eyes. He couldn't tell if this was all for show or not, but he was tired and annoyed and he was definitely about to lose this stupid poker game, anyway.

"You're a whore," he told her, right to her face. Right into her eyes. "You had _his_ hand up your skirt and you'll go home with_ him_, and then you'll probably go back and go to sleep in some other man's apartment. That's what whores do."

Her lips trembled for a moment, but then her eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "You's just jealous I ain't goin' home with you."

Beni snorted. "Yeah," he said, _"that's_ it."

"Why don't we leave the lady alone, chap?" Jonathan said, giving him a warning eye.

Beni let out a whiny sigh and pushed himself back from the table. "I have had enough of this stupid game. I fold."

He ignored whatever comments of good riddance were thrown at his back; he picked up his chips and stuffed them into his pocket, figuring he'd slip out the back rather than pay back his credit with the casino. All the entrances were pretty heavily guarded, but there was a window in the bathroom he could slip out of. It was a bit of a jump, but he'd made worse.

He grumbled to himself in Hungarian (because he had the right; he didn't have fucking Dave Daniels telling him he had to speak English) as he slipped into the bathroom and made quick work of prying the window open and slipping out. He landed with a crashing thud and scrambled to his feet, scurrying back to his apartment under the shield of darkness.

Minutes passed like hours while he irritably paced his floor, kicking her clothes out of the way at every turn. God, how could she have so many dresses? So many skirts and bras and garter belts? Where did she get all this shit?

He knew. Men bought them for her. She was too helpless and stupid to do anything for herself. All she could do was sell herself. She didn't think she was a whore, but she was. That's all she was, and that's what she was doing right -

Her key jingled in the lock, and he whirled around to wait for her, his arms crossed over his chest and his face already set in a heavy frown. The door swung open, and she breathed a little, "Oh!" before a wide smile spread across her lips. "Heya, baby!"

He didn't smile back. "Who won?"

Kitty squinted up at the ceiling. "Uhh...what's-his-name? Blond one with the chewin' tobacco."

Despite his foul mood, Beni's eyebrows jerked up in surprise. "Him?"

She shrugged, rubbing her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Yeah...Gotta go brush my teeth, actually. Promise you'll never take up chewin'."

Beni's eyes narrowed. "How was he?"

Kitty balked, staring back at him flabbergasted. "Didn't I just say he chewed? Feel like I got this like...film 'a tobacco all in my mouth - "

"So you did fuck him then."

Kitty's brow furrowed up, and she watched him with empty, confused eyes. "No, I got his wallet and told 'im I had to go to the john, but what's your problem?"

Beni blinked, grumbling to himself as he crossed the room to the bed and took a seat. He was irritated to see the dried pool of nail polish on his blanket. He heard her sigh, and when he glanced up, her hands were on her hips like before. She was in those stupid heels that made her taller than him like before, and _God,_ her legs did look good. He hated that she looked so good.

"Nothing," he mumbled. "I don't have a problem."

She eyed him suspiciously. "You're actin' upset."

"I'm not."

She stared at him for a moment longer before her eyes became wide and shocked. "Wait, you weren't _serious_ with all that whore talk, were ya?"

Beni reached in his pocket for a cigarette only to discover he'd smoked himself dry. He breathed a curse and looked up at her testily. "You let that stupid Brit put his hand all the way up your skirt."

Kitty watched him, confused and thoughtful. He stared back at her, chewing on a hangnail because he needed _something_ and he was all out of cigarettes. Suddenly her face broke into a knowing smile, and she crossed the room to him. She put her hands on his shoulders and somehow managed to wheedle her way into his lap, even though he'd been intent on keeping her off of him.

"Ohh, baby," she purred, touching his cheek in a way that felt condescending. "Ya're jealous."

Beni scoffed, giving her a little shove. "I am not. Get off of me."

_"Baby,"_ she said with a pout. "You don't hafta be jealous 'a them, see?"

She reached down the neckline of her dress and pulled out a fat leather wallet. She held it up in front of her grinning face, watching him with bright, almost clever, eyes. Beni relaxed, taking the wallet from her hand slowly. He opened it up, and his eyes widened. His face broke into a smile. He thumbed through the bills, unable to help the greedy chuckles escaping his throat as he counted them at a glance.

"Not bad, huh?" she said with a smug little smile.

He raised his eyebrows, not quite looking away from the cash. "Not bad at all, my dear."

Kitty giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck. She gave him a little shrug and a coy smirk. "What can I say? I'm a hustler."

Beni scoffed, raising his eyebrows incredulously. "You are not a hustler. You are a lucky slut with a nice ass."

Kitty met his eyes, and for a moment it looked like she might retort something, but she stopped herself. She nudged him with her elbow and gave him a little look.

"Well I got the rent money, didn't I?"

Beni nodded, putting the wallet aside reluctantly. He noticed her there in his lap, in that dress, and smirked. She was naïve and annoying, and she'd get into bed with anyone. And thank God for that. What did he care if some other man had his hands all over her? She took his money and came trotting back to _his_ apartment. Always.

What was he so pissed about, again?

He pulled her into a kiss, but immediately balked.

"My God, you taste terrible!"

"I know! It's that damn chew."

"Go brush your teeth. Shit."

She climbed out of his lap and grabbed her toothbrush off of the nightstand, and hurried out of the room. He watched her go until the door closed behind her, and then saw the wallet there on the bed beside him again. A mean little smirk crept up the side of his face as his fingers caressed its worn leather surface again.

He supposed he could put up with Kitty a little while longer.

**end.**


End file.
